Choices

Es una muestra espléndida de la vanguardia literaria chilena de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Juan Emar, su autor, emplea en el relato un conjunto de elementos formalmente figurativos, a partir de los cuales lleva a cabo una dislocación extrema del tiempo, el espacio y el sentido. Se genera así una antirrealidad donde lo onírico, lo metafísico y lo simbólico permiten instaurar un nuevo estatuto de verosimilitud.

Little Italy, 1946. Sophia Mancini habría disfrutado la gran inauguración de la agencia de detectives privados de su familia si el colérico chef de Vincenzo's Ristorante hubiera sobrevivido a la comida. Pero, antes de que la cuchara fría de Sophia tocara el spumone, alguien le clavó un cuchillo en la espalda a Vincenzo, y los invitados pasaron de un menú delicioso a un asesinato para el almuerzo. Pronto Sophia se encuentra siguiendo al jefe criminal Frankie Vidoni, conversando con la bocona de su amante, María, y evitando a su secuaz, Mooch DiMuccio. Sospecha de la viuda de Vincenzo,...

It was a time of tense emotion. Each was a surge with an almost uncontrollable excitement as the two men moved up the whole length of the riffled sluice. Neither uttered one single word. But they moved slowly on either side of the long, primitive, box-like construction, keeping pace, each with the other, as though in a mutual desire that such fortune as was theirs should be witnessed together, as though neither had courage to face alone the possibilities of this their first serious "washing." At each riffle the men paused. The more emotional of the two, Len Stern, thrust out a hand and...

Who really is that hold up man who's boarded Cyn Malloren's carriage and ordered him to take him to a remote house. He is not fooled by the common man clothing and demeanor: he has no doubt that she's a woman.